The media is obsessed
with promoting the myth that bike messengers are
disappearing. They have been predicting the demise since at least
1991. Messenger numbers go up and down with the economy. The
effect of the internet on the messenger industry was felt almost 10
years ago yet journalists make it sound like it just happened.
Here are some stats according to the US department of Labour:
Number of messengers in the US:
1996 – 138,000
1998 – 120,000
2000 - 141,000
2002 - 132,000
2004 – 147,000
The End of Bike
Messengers
The Decline of the Messenger
Industry
History
of the Messenger Industry - Transportation Alternatives'
"Bicycle Blueprint"
Bike
Messengers: A Vanishing Breed – MCW, Winter 2007
Bike
messengers lose business,
not hope - Colombia Chronicle, May 31, 2005
Messenger
Troubles Afoot - Chicago Tribune, October 13, 2003
Lean Pickings -
Bicycle Trader, September 1996
Economic
cycle flattens life for NYC bicycle messengers" - Boston Globe, May
6 1992
Fax
Displacing
Manhattan
Bike Couriers - New York Times, March 19, 1991
Messenger Boys
Fading Away
- New York Times, December 2, 1959
Bicycle messengers are pedaling uphill against the Internet
By Kathleen Pender
San Francisco Chronicle, July 17, 2007
Bicycle messengers are not quite an endangered species, but their
business is certainly going downhill, yet another victim of the
Internet.
Like many other companies, including newspapers, messenger services are
finding it hard to complete with free and instant.
Anyone with a computer, a fast Internet connection and the ability to
create a PDF file can send a photo, drawing or document of almost any
size in a matter of seconds at no cost, other than the technology
investment.
By comparison, it costs about $12 to send an envelope via messenger
from the Ferry Building to the Federal Building in San Francisco .
"There was a big fear 20 years ago that the fax would do away with our
business," says Philip Macafee, president of San Francisco 's Own
Quicksilver messenger service.
While the fax machine did put a dent in the business, it was nothing
compared with the Internet's bite.
"We have five messengers today (compared with) maybe 20 bikes and 15
trucks in 1990," Macafee says.
Other San Francisco firms report similar drop-offs.
"We're doing one-third of the business we used to do," says Ray Roy,
owner of Lightning Express. "I have six to eight messengers now
compared to 15 to 20 all through the 1990s."
Lori O'Rourke, owner of Speedway Delivery, says, "Today, we have 15
bikes and four drivers. Five years ago, I had maybe 30 bikes and seven
drivers."
Initially, the Internet gave San Francisco messenger companies a boost.
Dot-com companies -- flush with cash from stock offerings, unburdened
by any need to show a profit and always in a hurry -- spent lavishly on
messengers.
"In those days, the money was flowing a lot better and people didn't
mind spending it on very expensive deliveries -- a couple or three
hundred dollars," Roy says.
People who left a suit coat at home or a briefcase at a Lake Tahoe
cabin would simply call a messenger to retrieve it. "They wanted it
immediately and didn't care what the price was," Roy says.
Some messengers benefited directly from the Internet boom by working
for Kozmo.com, which delivered snacks and movies that customers ordered
online.
"Kozmo.com lost money on every delivery," says Michael Eno, a
self-employed bike messenger in San Francisco .
Things got worse for messenger companies after the dot-com collapse in
2000, and much worse after the terrorist attacks in 2001, which caused
stocks to fall even further and companies of all kinds to pare their
spending.
"When things became a little tight financially, the messenger companies
were one of the first things where offices and companies could cut
back," Roy says. "They said, 'We'll have our own employees deliver it
or send it in the mail.' "
Heightened security after the Sept. 11 attacks also meant messengers
had to spend more time making deliveries.
Before Sept. 11, "You could go anywhere, do whatever -- you were the
messenger," says Greg Spear, a former messenger who now runs the Bike
Hut, a repair and rental shop.
Today, "What used to take three minutes now takes 20 minutes. That's a
common complaint I hear" from messengers who stop by the bike shop,
Spear says.
By the time businesses had started to recover, more firms were using
e-mail, instant messaging and other forms of electronic delivery.
"We used to deliver a lot of airline tickets," says a San Francisco
bike messenger who goes by the name of Pappy. Today, almost all tickets
are delivered electronically.
Many messenger firms are also losing business as courts demand
electronic filing.
In August, San Francisco Superior Court began requiring electronic
filing in all asbestos cases. As a result, at least 20 percent of the
court's civil case filings are now received and processed
electronically, Superior Court Judge Tomar Mason says.
Federal courts are also migrating to electronic case filing. "It
started with Bankruptcy Court, migrated to district courts, and
appellate courts are at the last stage. The Ninth Circuit (Court of
Appeals) will go to (electronic filing) later this year," says
spokesman David Madden.
Jeanne Marlow is office manager for two law firms in San Francisco .
One primarily handles business litigation and files most of its cases
in federal court. That firm's use of messenger services "has fallen by
90 percent" since the dawn of electronic filing, she says. "It's rare
that we use a messenger."
The other firm handles family law and files most of its cases in
Superior Court. At that firm, "We still use messengers several times a
day. We ask them to take a document over (to a client), have it signed,
file it with the court and bring back a copy," Marlow says.
That could change if Superior Court demands that more documents be
filed electronically.
For now, some messenger firms still depend heavily or even primarily on
legal work.
Another continuing source of business is architectural and engineering
firms. Even though they can design buildings or interiors on a computer
and could send them electronically, most clients and contractors don't
have large-format printers capable of printing blueprint-size drawings.
Architecture firm HOK still uses messengers regularly to deliver
"oversize packages, drawings and samples," says Jim Takagi, manager of
office services.
Mark Maloy, HOK's library manager, says architects "are very tactile."
They want to see and feel everything that goes into a building.
Macafee says his messenger firm still makes a lot of deliveries for the
State Compensation Insurance Fund. "They may be moving X-rays or
documents that are difficult to scan," he says. His firm also moves a
lot of documents between facilities for the University of California .
The messengers who hang out on Market Street say they still deliver a
lot of physical items like bagels and cash deposits. Some make personal
and business deliveries for rich, busy people who have more money than
time.
Most messengers work on commission, earning roughly half the delivery
charge. The downturn in volume has made it harder to make a living.
"A good messenger should be able to make $100 a day. That's very rare
now," Macafee says.
Jim Riley, who works for Western Messenger, says he can do 15
deliveries on a slow day, 35 on a good day. A messenger might make $450
in a slow week, $600 in a good week, he says.
